General Man, welcome wait debate.
Well, good evening and welcome to the Late Debate. I'm James Macpherson with FREYE. Leitch and Caleb Bond. As you would have heard Paul Murray say, we're waiting at any moment to go live to the Pentagon, where US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is due to give a report, presumably about how those bombing raids in Iran went and the damage done to Iran's nuclear facilities, which of course has
been a subject of great contention. Licks from the Pentagon suggesting that the damage was only minor and set Around's nuclear facilities back just a few months, of course, Donald Trump saying that they've absolutely obliterated it.
So where did it go?
There any moment you can see in the bottom of your screen there that the press are all assembled and waiting for the Defense Secretary to arrive. Just while we're waiting for him to appear, and will go there straight away, Caleb. This is a pretty important statement from him to clear up exactly what happened, what the US achieved, particularly in light of the fact, and we'll talk about it soon.
The Ayatola has made a statement today explaining that the US have been defeated, that Israel have been smashed, and that Iran remains fully intact. So there's a lot of different versions right now. Pete heg Seth will give some clarity.
I presient the Ayatola has been drinking the kool aid. There's no I mean, he said, I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Sionist regime, amongst other things. I mean, he's acting like they've won the war. Mate, there's and you can you can that's in French there. I wonder if it's the Ietoller himself who bangs these things out online. But of course, you know he has to try and save face at home to some degree, dos Aniso. He has to look like that he's winning
this war. Of course, the reason we have a ceasefire on the Iranian end anyway is because they bloody will needed one. I mean, as I said the other night, the only way that the regime can survive is if they have a cease fire, because otherwise, you know, eventually get punneled into the ground and then you'll have the uprising.
That'll get rid of them.
But as to this pressor that we are about to see, hopefully we will have answers to the questions that many of us have had, because, of course, as I was saying the other night, the data, the stuff that came out from the International Atomic Energy Agency was showing there was no radiation emitting from.
The sites that were struck.
You've had the reports in CNN and The New York Times that of course came from a leak within the defense community, suggesting that there was no real distruction of
the three sites that were hit. So hopefully we get some real detail tonight, because even if you think that the reports out of CNN, etc. Were treasonous, as Donald Trump said, there are legitimate questions to be asked about how successful this was because we don't know, we've not been told to this point anyway, how much enriched uranium might have been removed from these sites before they were struck.
We know that these bunker busting bombs, of course, can do a lot of damage underground, we don't know exactly how much damage they've been able to do. We've only been able to see the above ground aerial shots that show they've closed off intrigue points to these sites. But we don't know what's happened to the equipment, et cetera. So hopefully some of that stuff will be cleared up tonight because they are the questions that many people will be wanting to know exactly.
And the CIA has also come out because that report was from the Defense, So what was the intelligence some intelligence agency which is different to the CIA.
So I mean it is important to note.
That there are generally different and conflicting reports coming from in different intelligence communities depending on this.
All right, we're going to go live to the Pentagon now the US Defense Secretary about to address the media.
Well, good morning, everybody.
Just arrived last night back from NATO two days apart from my battle buddy.
So it's good to see him this morning. Good to see him as chairman.
Where there was a historic outcome. I want to start with that real quick.
I think there's so much news, so many things happening, that oftentimes big momentous moments get missed. What President Trump accomplished in NATO yesterday was game changing and historic, a shift in burden sharing to European responsibility in NATO that most would have said was impossible at the beginning of his term, but he said NATO.
Needs to pay up.
They started in the first term, and here in his second term, we've accelerated that thirty two NATO countries committed to spending five percent of their GDP on defense, on actually investing in the NATO alliance.
With all the ink spilled, all of your.
Outlets, find the time to properly recognize this historic change in continental security that other presidents tried to do, other presidents talked about.
President Trump accomplished it. It's a huge deal.
I see we're here this morning because in hunting for scandals all the time, in trying to find wedges and spin stories, this press corps and the press corps miss
historic moments. You miss historic moments like five percent at NATO, which when you hear I was in the closed door briefing, I wish there could have been cameras in there when you heard the prime ministers and presidents of other countries to a man and to a woman looking at President Trump and saying, this never could have happened, never would have happened, seemed impossible five years ago, two years ago, eight years ago. But here we are because of your leadership.
If you ask them the question, I bet.
They'd say the same thing. For scandals.
You miss historic moments like recruiting at the Pentagon, historic levels in the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy.
Yeah, maybe there'll be a little mention here or there.
But because it was under President Trump's leadership, because it was because Americans are responding to him as commander in chief, the press corps doesn't want to write about it or bring us to the topic of the moment and the highly successful strikes in Iran. Let me read the bottom line here. President Trump directed the most complex and secretive military operation in history, and it was a resounding success, resulting in a ceasefire agreement and the end of.
The Twelve Day War.
There's been a lot of discussions about what happened to what didn't happen.
Step back for a second.
Because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war, decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities.
I want to.
Read some of the assessments that have been provided, because whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC, or The New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.
I've had a chance to read it.
Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment from DIA.
I'm looking at it right now. Again.
It was preliminary, a day and a half after the actual strike. When it admits itself in writing that it requires weeks to accumulate the necessary.
Data to make such an assessment, it's preliminary.
It points out that it's not been coordinated with the intelligence community at all.
There's low confidence in this.
Particular report, it says in the report. There are gaps in the information. It says in the report.
Multiple lynchpin assumptions are what this assessment a lynchpin assumption?
You know what that is.
It means your entire premiss is predicated on a lynch pin. If you're wrong, everything else is wrong. And yet still this report acknowledges it's likely severe damage. Again, this is preliminary, but leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike I wasn't successful. I'm going to get to the chairman in a moment, because he's going to lay out the particulars for you based on his professional military experience.
But here's what other folks are saying. THEDIA that put that report out says that this is a preliminary low confidence report and will continue to be refined as additional intelligence becomes available. How about the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. The devastating US strikes on Fourdeaux destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable.
Have any of these quotes made their.
Way into the New York Times or The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN any of these quotes? How about this one? This is a new one from the UN. The United Nations no friend of the United States or certainly Israel.
Often.
Here's the head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency this morning, Raphael Grossi. US and Israeli strikes caused enormous damage to Iran's nuclear sites.
Don't take my word for it.
How about the IDF's chief of staff.
I can say here that the assessment is that we significantly damage the nuclear program, setting.
It back by years. I repeat years.
The Iranian Foreign minister the spokesman, our nuclear instrations have been badly damaged, that's for sure.
I'm sure that's an understatement.
John Radcliffe, the director of the CIA, putting out a statement just last night, CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by recent targeted strikes. This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable, very different than preliminary assessment with low confidence. He's saying, historically reliable and accurate source of method that sever key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have
to be rebuilt over the course of years. CIA continues to collect additional, reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision makers fully informed.
How about DNI.
Telsea Gabbard Yesterday, she writes, and I quote, new intelligence confirms what POTUS has stated numerous times. Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed. Institute for Science and International Security President David Albright. Overall Israel and US attacks have effectively destroyed
un Iran's centrifuge enrichment program time and time again. I can go down the list those that understand, those that see, those that do proper assessments recognize that what the United States military did was historic and again before I pass it to the chairman, because you, and I mean specifically you the press, specifically you the press core because you cheer against Trump so hard. It's like, in your DNA and in your blood cheer against Trump because you want him not to.
Be successful so bad.
You have to cheer against the efficacy of these strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren't effective. Maybe the way the Trump administration is represented him isn't true. So let's take half truths, spun information, leaked information, and then spin it, spin it in every way we can to try to cause doubt and manipulate the mind, the public mind over whether or not are brave.
Pilots were successful.
How many stories have been written about how hard it is to, I don't know, fly a plane for thirty six hours. Has MSNBC done that story, as Fox? Have we done the story how hard that is? Have we done it two or three times so that American people understand?
How about how difficult it is.
To shoot a drone from an F fifteen or sixteen or F twenty two or F thirty five, or what it's like to man a Patriot battery, or how hard it is to refuel mid air, giving the American people an understanding of how complex and sophisticated this mission really was. There are so many aspects of what our brave men and women did that because of.
The hatred of this press.
Corps are undermined because your people are trying to leak and spin that it wasn't successful. It's irresponsible, and folks in this room are privy to that information because of the proximity here in the Pentagon. It's an important responsibility. And time and time again, classified information is leaked or pedled for political purposes to try.
To make the president look bad.
And what's really happening is you're undermining the success of incredible B two pilots and incredible F thirty five pilots, and incredible refuelers and incredible air defenders who pomplish their mission set back a nuclear program in ways that other presidents would have dreamed.
How about we celebrate that.
How about we talked about how special America is that we only we have these capabilities.
I think it's too much to ask.
Unfortunately for the fake news, so we're used to that, but we also have an opportunity to stand at the podium and read the truth of what's really happening. And the reality is you want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated.
Choose your word.
This was an historically successful attack and we should celebrate it as Americans.
And it gives us a chance to have peace, chance to have a deal, and an opportunity to prevent a nuclear Iran, which is something President Trump talked about for twenty years and no other presidents had the courage to actually do so. With that, I want to hand it over to the Chairman of Joint Chiefs. They've done technical analysis on this, not just on the strike, but also on our patriot defenders, on all you did, and mister Chairman will hand it over to you.
Good morning, Thank you, Man Strictery, and good morning and all of you. Thank you, thank you for being here. As a follow up to my comments on Sunday's press conference, I wanted to give you a few updates this morning on something I'm honored to do as a chairman, and that's a chance to get to talk about some of our service members and the incredible things.
That they do on behalf of our nation.
And I apologize ahead of time for the length and the detail. Today I'm going to brief you on a couple of things. First, I'm going to talk about our air defenders at Aludd in Katar and their actions on Monday. Then I'm going to walk you through a little bit about the academics that went into the attack against four dah, the massive ordnance penetrator weapon, and we're going to show a video that highlights the effects that that weapon has. Of course, nobody was down inside the target, so we
don't have video from the target first. On Monday, as the President has stated, on Monday morning, we began to receive indications and warnings that Iran intended to attack US bases in the region that morning. Building on the work that Sencom Commander Eric Carilla had done and on the orders of the President, al at Alude'd Airbase and Katar and around the region, we assumed a minimum force posture.
Most folks had moved off.
The base to extend the security perimeter out away from what we assessed might be a target zone. Except for a very few Army soldiers at Aluded at that point, only two Patriot batteries remained on base. Roughly forty four American soldiers responsible for defending the entire base to include Sencom's forward headquarters in the Middle East, an entire air base, and all the US forces there. The oldest soldier was
a twenty eight year old captain. The youngest was a twenty one year old private who'd been in the military for less than two years. So let's put ourselves out there for a second. Imagine you're that young first lieutenant. You're twenty five or twenty six years old, and you've been assigned as the tactical director inside the command and Control element.
You at that age.
Are the sole person responsible to defend this base. Listening next to you is your early warning operator, whose job is to notify you of imminent attack. There's five people inside a vehicle and five people outside of a vehicle around these a total of, as I said, forty four.
By the way, you've sat in the Middle East for years, deployed over and over again, extended multiple times, always being prepared, but unsure of when that particular day will come that you must execute your mission and not fail at doing it. In this case, these Patriot Cares were deployed from Korea and Japan as part of our US forces there to ensure that we had the most capable missiles in the Sencom area of responsibility.
As the day.
Continues, you start to hear more and more chatter in the information space about an appending attack, and as the sun starts to set in the west, you get orders from your higher headquarters to make sure that your missile batteries are pointed to the north. There are just a few other teammates. It's hot, you're getting nervous, and you
expect an attack outside of those Patriot vehicles. Your hot crew, which is one NCO and four additional soldiers, turns a key and relinquishes control of those missiles to that young lieutenant inside the vehicle, and you wait. You know that you're going to have approximately two minutes, one hundred and twenty seconds to either succeed or fail. And then at approximately twelve thirty pm on Monday, that's seven thirty pm in Katar, as the sun sets in.
The west, Iran attacks.
As the targets were detected, Round after round of Patriot missiles are ejected from their canisters by an initial launch charge. Then the main solid rocket motor ignites. You can feel this in your body if you've ever been around a Patriot taking a shot, and round after round goes out and guides against those missiles coming inbound. We believe that this is the largest single patriot engagement in US military history, and we were enjoy We were joined in this engagement
by the Katari patriot crews. I'm not going to tell you how many rounds were shot, but it was a bunch because of classified purposes, and we're aware that something there's reports of something getting through. What we do know, there was a lot of metal flying around between attacking missiles being hit by patriots, boosters from attacking missiles being hit by patriots, the patriots themselves flying around in the
debris from those patriots hitting the ground. There was a lot of metal flying around, and yet our US air defenders had only seconds to make complex decisions with strategic impact. These awesome humans, along with their Katari brothers and sisters and arms, stood between a salvo of Iranian missiles and the safety of value. Deed, they are the unsung heroes
of the twenty first century United States Army. And I know a lot of you have seen the videos online and the excitement as those Patriots departed their launchers and went up and guided. This really demonstrates the combat capability and capacity of our Army. Air defenders simply stated, they
absolutely crushed it if you'd flip this over, thanks. Let me Let me next move to a walkthrough of the GBU fifty seven Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapon and share a little bit about the planners who did this and their work on the weapon. First, let me set the stage for you. There's an organization in the US called the Defense Threat Reduction Agency DITRA. DITRA does a lot of things for our nation, but DITRA is the world's leading
expert on deeply buried underground targets. In two thousand and nine, a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer was brought into a vault at an undisclosed location and briefed on something going on in Iran. For security purposes, I'm not going to share his name. He was shown some photos and some highly classified intelligence of what looked like a major can
instruction project in the mountains of Iran. He was tasked to study this facility, work with the intelligence community to understand it, and he was soon joined by an additional teammate. For more than fifteen years, this off cer and his teammate lived and breathed this single target four dough, a critical element of Iran's covert nuclear weapons program. He studied the geology. He watched the Iranians dig it out. He watched the construction, the weather, the discard material the geology,
the construction materials, where the materials came from. He looked at the vent shaft, the exhaust shaft, the electrical systems, the environmental control systems, every nook, every crater, every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out. They literally dreamed about this target at night when they slept, They thought about it driving back and forth to work, and they knew from the very first day is what
this was for. You do not build a multi layered underground bunker complex with centrifuges and other equipment in a mountain for any peaceful purpose. They weren't able to discuss this with their family, their wives, their kids, their friends, but they just kept grinding it out, and along the way they realized we did not have a weapon that could adequately strike and kill this target. So they began a journey to work with industry and other tacticians to
develop the GBU fifty seven. They tested it over and over again, tried different options, tried more. After that, they accomplished hundreds of test shots and dropped many full scale weapons against extremely realistic targets for a single purpose, kill this target at the time and place of our nation's choosing.
And then, on a day in June of only twenty five, more than fifteen years after they started their life's work, the phone rang and the President of the United States ordered the B two force that you've supported to go strike and kill this target.
Yesterday.
I had the incredible honor and privilege of spending time with these two Defense Threat Reduction Agency officers who've given so much. One of them said, quote, I can't even get my head around this. My heart is so filled with the pride of being a part of this team. I am so honored to be a part of this. To you both, thank you, and thank you to your families. Operation Midnight Hammer was the culmination of those fifteen years
of incredible work. The air crews, the tanker crews, the weapons crews that built the weapons, the load crews that loaded it. Before I run through this video today, I want to talk a little bit about weaponeering and what goes into into an attack. Weaponeering is the science of evaluating a target. I mentioned all of those factors before that these two DITRA officers had thought about. Ultimately, weaponeering is determining the right weapon and fuse combination to achieve
the desired effects and maximum destruction against a target. In the case of four DAH, the Dittri team understood with a high degree of confidence the elements of the target required to kill its functions, and the weapons were designed, planned and delivered to ensure that they achieved the effects
in the mission space. By the way, in the beginning of its development, we had so many PhDs working on the MOP program doing modeling and simulation that we were quietly and in a secret way, the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America. So let me talk about Let me talk about the graphic a little bit. In the GBU fIF which all of you I know know, is a thirty thousand pound weapon dropped only by the B two.
It's comprised of.
Steel, explosive and a fuse programmed bespokely each weapon to achieve a particular effect inside the target. Each weapon had a unique desired impact, angle, arrival, final heading, and a fuse setting. The fuse is effectively what tells the bomb when to function. A longer delay in a fuse, the deeper the weapon will penetrate and drive into the target. So on four DOH in June of two thousand and eight,
you can see these three holes depicted. Here is the main exhaust shaft with two additional ventilation shafts on either side. The United States decided to strike these two ventilation shafts seen here on the main graphic as the primary point of entry into the mission space. In the days preceding the attack against Fourneau, the Iranians attempted to cover the
shafts with concrete to try to prevent an attack. I won't share the specific dimensions of the concrete cap, but you should know that we know what the dimensions of those concrete caps were. The planners had to account for this. They accounted for everything. The cap was forcibly removed by the first weapon and the main shaft was uncovered. Weapons two, three, four five were tasked to enter the main shaft, moved down into the complex at greater than one thousand feet
per second, and explode in the mission space. Weapon number six was designed on each side, so there were six on each side. Weapons number six was designed and does a flex weapon to allow us to cover if one of the preceding jets or one of the preceding weapons did not work. The video I'm about to show you is a culmination of over fifteen years of development and testing. As I said, hundreds of test shots on various models.
This is one weapon.
So if you take a view of this is five additionals, you'll get a sense of what this looks like. Hopefully you can see it and there's not too much reflection. Tom runs our videos out there. We'll run at full speed so you can see it and then go back through it. Go ahead, Tom, keep it going for a minute. You'll see inside the mission space. Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won't see an impact crater because they're designed to deeply bury and then function. I know there's been a
lot of questions about that. All six weapons at each vent at four doh went exactly where they were intended to go. A bomb has three effects that causes damage, blast, fragmentation, and overpressure. In this case, the primary kill mechanism in the mission space was a mix of overpressure and blast, ripping through the open tunnels and destroying critical hardware. The majority of the damage we assessed based on our extensive modeling, was a blast layer combined with the impulse extending from
the shock. Imagine what this looks like six times over. A point that I want to make here, the Joint Force does not do BDA by design. We don't grade our own homework. The intelligence community does. But here's what we know following the attacks and the strikes on four DAH. First that the weapons were built, tested, and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to
their intended aim points. For the weapons functioned as design, meaning they exploded. We know this through other means, intelligence means that we have that were visibly We were visibly able to see them, and we know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function and the pilots stated, quote, this was the brightest explosion that I've ever seen. It literally looked like daylight. Let me now turn to the bomber crews themselves give you a few details about them.
The crews that attacked Fordeaux were from the Active Duty Air Force and the Missouri Air National Guard. The crews ranked from captain to colonel and Most were graduates of the Air Force Weapon School, headquartered at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. I will state for the record that there is no beach, volleyball, or football at the Air
Force Weapon School. They were male and female aviators on this mission, and a crew member told me when I talked to them on video the other day that this felt like the Super Bowl, the thousands of scientists, airmen, and maintainers all coming together. One last story about people. When the crews went to work on Friday, they kissed their loved ones goodbye, not knowing when or if they'd
be home. Late on Saturday night, their families became aware of what was happening, and on Sunday, when those jets returned from White Men, their families were there, flags flying and tears flowing. I have chills literally talking about this.
The jets rejoined into a formation of four airplanes, followed by a formation of three, and came up overhead White Men, proudly in the traffic pattern, pitching out to land right over the base and landing to the incredible cheers of their families who sacrifice and serve right alongside their family members. Like I said, there were a lot of flags and a lot of tears. One commander told me, this is a moment in the lives of our families that they
will never forget. That, my friends, is what America's joined for. Does we think? We develop? We train, we rehearse, we test, we evaluate every single day, and when the call comes to deliver, we do so. I could not be more proud standing up here today of our joint force. I'm filled with gratitude that I get to tell their story. And as we stand here right now, our forces remain on a high state of readiness in the region, prepared
to defend themselves. And one last thing, our adversaries around the world should know that there are other Dittri team members out there studying targets for the same amount of time and we'll continue to do so. Thank you very much. I apologize for the length I look forward to your questions.
Thank you, mister Chairman.
I would just thank you, by the way for that extensive work, the lay down, I mean, even get that laser porter, yes, sir.
Thank you scaring me away as always.
I mean even in just public reporting.
If you see the post strike shaft of the three holes, the vast majority and fairly so. The vast majority speculation has been those are the three strike points, when.
In actuality, what you realize is these are the events.
These are the caps.
The first munition took the cap off, and the other five went down the center hole, which if you're planning the target, you would want it to be the direct one going to the bottom. These are the types of things that go into the planning for a strike that we wouldn't the Pentagon would not expect the press corps of the American people that initially understand.
So laying this information.
Out is helpful, but it's also why we asked for a beat, for a moment, for a day or two, the opportunity to tell that story, because, as the Chairman said, these men and women that did this mission, they just want to do their job. They're not expecting their story to be told. They're not expecting the glory. They are grateful for the flags and the hugs of family. That's why they do the job. But they also so know they were part of something historic. We know how historic
it was. The chairman does I know, Our staffs know, and so that's why we are and the President of the United States States knows and That's why it's almost personal when we see the way in which.
Leaks are used to try to disparage.
The outcome or muddy the waters about the impact of what happened without being responsible with information and allowing the professionals to assess and provide that information, just like the Chairman did. So thank you, mister Chairman, for that information, and we welcome a few additional questions.
Yes, sir General, on Sunday you said final battle damage will take some time, and you also said, I think BDA is still pending and it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there a new QUIP facility.
So that was just over three days ago. So what has changed? Would you use the term obliterated as well?
Sir?
Like I said, we don't do BDA.
I'll refer that to the intelligence community, and uh, you're talking with them.
I mean, what changed in the past three days?
And make you so you know, sir?
I think I said, I mean, I think I explained what changed.
There was a great deal of irresponsible reporting based on leak's preliminary information in low confidence. Again, when someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda, and when you leak a portion of an intelligence assessment, but just a little portion, just a little portion, that makes it seem like maybe
the strike wasn't effective. Then you start us a news cycle, whether it's the Washington Post or Fox News or CNN or MSNBC, you start a news cycle that starts to call into question the ethics.
That's why.
So you bring the chairman here, who's not involved in politics here in new politics. That's that's that's my lane to understand and translate and talk about those types of things.
So I can use the word obliterate it.
He could use defeat, destroyed, assess all of those things. But ultimately we're here to clarify what these weapons are capable of which anyone would you know, two ear, two eyes, some ears in a brain can recognize that kind of firepower with that specificity at that location and others is going to have a devastating effect.
So we all recognize there will be days and weeks ahead.
That's why yesterday I said, if.
You want to know what's going on a four to zero, you better go there and get a big shovel, because no one's under there right now, No one's under there able to assess, and everyone's using reflections of what they see. And that's why the Israelis, the Iranians, the I, A, A, the U N to a man and to a woman who recognized the capability of this weapon system.
Are acknowledging how destructive it's been.
So that's what's that's what's changed.
Just three or four days later.
See this is this is a point. This is how difficult it is to actually manage. You just watched a video of what this weapon is capable of. Uh we That's where we find our confidence is in the skill of men and women and the capability of the systems they employed, and the recognition so far in the reflections that it was a highly successful mission.
Sure, I think you could.
I'd say, go the ICE should be able to help you answer that question. They look at a variety as the Secretary is alluded to, we look at a variety of things. I don't do that. They do all different sources of intel, which I'd refer you to them to get clarity on the intill.
Again, I go back to the IC, whether it's Director Radcliffe or Odie and I Gabbart. I read the statements at the beginning. They're the ones aggregating the intelligence, and they're saying nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over a number of years.
Facilities were destroyed, whatere. We got right here.
So you cited a body of credible intelligence to suggest that the damage at fort in other places.
What is that referring to? And when we see it?
I was reading from the CIA director's statement which came out last night. CIA again, they do the BDA, they do the assessment. CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates it also goes on to say new intelligence from historically reliable and accurate sources and methods.
Now you can imagine, you can imagine the CIA.
Director is going to be very careful about how he articulates things of that sensitivity, classified secret, top secret, compartmentalized. He's going to know things that you're not going to know, that the press isn't going to know. And he's reflecting that the sources he's seeing are highly credible. Uh, they've they've given credible intelligence. They are those processes of given credible intelligence in the past, and that's what.
He's basically on.
I think we need to see that.
Do you have a top secret clearancer.
Eventually okay the American public once.
Yes, yeah, I wanted to.
I wanted to ask briefly, just not you check it shut?
Oh so Mike Glennwood, Washington, Yes.
Thanks.
Anybody who's ever read a battalions to report after a fight knows that it's usually the initial report is usually wrong, sometimes grossly so. Is what happened in a sentence that caused y'all to sort of rethink the intelligence process or the dissemination or do you think it's just I mean, it's a process itself doesn't require any more adjustment.
Well, I can tell you what the chairman told me in the situation room and reminded us all, which is alongside what you just said, sir, is that the first first.
Reports are almost always wrong.
They're almost always incomplete, right anything, whether it's a squad level operation or a strategic level operation, the initial reflections you get are coming at you at a high rate of speed from a lot of different sources. So your job is to step back and assess them. And that's why we're urging caution about putting it premising entire stories on biased leaks to biased publications trying to make something look bad.
How about we take a beat, recognize.
First the success of our warriors, hold them up, tell their stories, celebrate that wave an American flag, be proud of what we accomplished. And in the meantime, I can assure you the Chairman of his staff, the intelligence community, are staff and others are doing all the assassins necessary to.
Make sure that mission was indeed successful.
Yes, right there, So thank you, missus.
Secretary. Iran has recognized that their nuclear program was indeed severely damaged, but they also said that the US strikes only strengthened their ability and their determination to complete their nuclear program. How do you respond to us? Or is that a provocation from Iran?
Well, I would say Iron's going to have to say a lot of things right now in order to bolster their image, especially internally. You know, in if the media, there's a lot of things they'll say for domestic consumption, but we're watching very closely what they do. Again, that's the intel community. Our job as the chairman, I mean, the chairman laid it out so beautifully. Our job is to be prepared. And how proud are you? How proud
am I? I didn't know the full story of those men and women fifteen years ago who've been pointing at that target.
It makes me proud to be an American. That's an awesome story.
I hope we can tell more aspects of that in an unclassified way in the future. That's a great thing to know. Our job is to be prepared when the commander in chief calls based on those assessments. So of course I see the Intelligence Committee will keep watching what Iran does and pay attention to that. But the President has created the contours the opportunity for a deal for peace in something that the world said was intractable, that wasn't possible, and we.
Got that piece that cease fire, that.
Option because of strength, because of his willingness to use American military might that no one else on the planet can do with the kind of planners and operators that the Chairman just laid out.
Yes, sir, right there, yep, sir.
Just a quick question. There's public imagery available saying that highly enriched uranium was moved out of Foordo before the strikes?
Is that accurate?
Have you seen that?
And mister chairman, a question for you. Have you been pressured to change your assessment or given more rosy intelligence assessment to us by any political factor, whether it's a president or the Secretary, And if you were, would you do that?
Yeah, well, that one's easy. No, No, I have not, and no I would not. My job as a chairman is to offer a range of options to the President and the National Command Authority, to deliver the risks associated with each of those, and then take the orders of the National Command Authority and go execute them. I've never been pressured by the President or the Secretary to do anything other than tell them exactly what I'm thinking, and that's exactly what I've done.
There's nothing that I've seen that suggests that what we didn't hit exactly what we wanted to hit in those locations.
It's about highly enriched uranium. Do you have certainty that all the highly enriched uranium was inside the Four Dome Mountain or some of it? Because there were satellite photos that showed more than a dozen trucks there two days in advance. Are you certain none of that highly enriched uranium was moved?
Of course, we're watching every single aspect.
But Jennifer, you've been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the President says, I'm familiar.
About the ventilations chefs on Saturday night, and in fact, I was the first to describe the B two bombers, the refueling, the entire mission with great accuracy. So I take issue with that.
I appreciate you acknowledging that this was the first, the most successful mission based on operational security that this department has done since you be here, and I appreciate that. So we're looking at all aspects of intelligence and making sure we have a sense of what was where.
Acknowledge the female pilots that also participated in this mission. The early messages that you sent out only congratulated the boys.
So when I say something like our boys and bombers, see this is the kind of thing the press does.
Right of course, the Chairman mentioned a female bomber pilot.
That's fantastic. She's fantastic, she's a here. I want more female bomber pilots.
I hope the.
Men and women of our country sign up to do such brave and audacious things.
But when you spin it as because I say our boys.
And bombers as a common phrase, I'll keep saying things like that, whether they're men or women. Very proud of that female pilot, just like I'm very proud of those male pilots. And I don't care if it's a male or a female in that cockpit, and the American people don't care. But it's the obsession with race and gender in this department that's changed priorities.
We don't do that anymore. We don't play your little games.
Yes, right there.
Certainly the uranium was removed from the facility before the B two struck.
So I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be moved or otherwise.
Yes, Kelly Meyer.
With News Nation, and just off the top when I say we're grateful for the service of these pilots and everybody that serves I wanted.
To ask you.
The CIA statement said when possible, they will provide updates and information to the public for transparency, and I believe that's what we're looking for here. Do you commit to share the Defense Intelligence Agency report when it is ready so the American people can understand more about the intelligence assessment?
Well? Whatever, Actually the report that was discussed, this preliminary report, was a what's called a restrike report, so it comes to us to give us an assessment whether a target would need to be restruck, right, that's the reason why. So based on internal feedback loop that we're supposed to have access to. Unfortunately someone took advantage of that. But whatever is supposed to be made public will be. But whatever has to stay sensitive, so.
Can I It's jump in you know. One of the things that I'm trying to do through this journey that we're on together, of course transparency, but also the requirement to really protect these capabilities. I guess it times up, so there's a balance in there, right, we do need to preserve options should the nation and the Joint Force be tasked to go do something again. So I'm confident we'll find the middle ground. But there are some things that if asked, I want to not release really, so.
We're going to leave it right there.
I want to thank the heroism of our men and women in the military. What their carbash is truly historic, setting back the Iranian nuclear program untold number of years. It was a devastating attack. We appreciate you covering it. Thank you very much for Chamis.
Thank you for talk a little bit.
More about well that was a pretty extraordinary press conference from the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Kine. They talked about the fact that multiple intelligence agencies have reported to strike on Iran's.
Nuclear facilities, was successful.
In obliterating them, destroying them, you choose the word, but the intelligence agencies agree it will take years and years for Iran to re establish any sort of nuclear capability.
The Chairman of the Joint.
Chiefs, I thought this was really interesting, talked about the fact that they've known about this for dou facility since two thousand and nine and have had a special group of people working for fifteen years not only studying that facility, but designing a especially to be dropped on that facility, and of course that happened just a few days ago. I thought it was very interesting howte me haig Seth chastised the media, essentially rebuking them for undermining not only
the military but also America itself. And finally, my other observation there, Caleb was the Joint Chiefs, the Chairman's the Joint Chiefs warning America's adversaries just as we studied for dough since two thousand and nine that develop a special bomb for it. Don't think there are not other targets around the world that we are right now studying and preparing for in the event of conflict in the future. That was a pretty amazing press conference.
Indeed, and of course that last point is what you know, peace through strength is all about. Right. It was reasonably light on actual detail. If you were hoping to have a blow by blow of exactly pardon the part of exactly what was destroyed, you didn't get it. But as HeiG Seth lined out, it'll take a long time to actually work out exactly what happened. Yeah, exactly got to
go there with the shovel. And the report, of course he was talking about that CNN and MSNBC, the New York Times have been referencing in the last few days, was not released in full, and he said that it says on the first page it is a preliminary.
Low confidence report.
And so even if you have questions about exactly what has been destroyed, the fact remains that the report on which these reports media reports have been based is by no.
Means correct or accurate.
It is the earliest possible takeaway from what happened, So there is a lot more to come out of this now.
It was funny as well.
You mentioned him getting stuck into the press, how he said it was in their blood, their DNA, to essentially take on the present on these matters. The most interesting part from neither was the detail around how this bomb worked and how they deployed it on the day, particularly how they used the first bomb to blow off those concrete caps that had been put in place, and then the following four bombs were used to go down the central tunnel, and they had another one on back up
if they needed it. He said each of these bombs was thirty thousand pounds, that is in kilograms, thirteen thousand and six hundred kilograms each, and they deployed six of them. So I mean that is an obscene amount.
Of explosives that were.
Dropped on those sets, dropped so lightning speed with pinpoint accuracy.
About one thousand feet a second.
So even if you're questioning what happened, I mean, heck, if you're dropping bombs of that magnitude, that big, that heavy, you can't tell me that they haven't done so well.
I think that's the most important part because Hegseath made this point very clearly. The reason that initial report was leaked was for no other purpose than a political maneuver to undermine confidence in Donald Trump and in the US military and ultimately in the country itself. And so the whole point of illustrating exactly how the bombs worked was to basically say, there is absolutely no way on earth that such a perfectly executed, meticulously planned mission over fifteen
years could not work. Essentially, they had the whole site model. They knew every nook and cranny, They modeled what these bombs would look like, how they would detonate.
Every single element.
Of this mission was planned, rehearse tested, and executed on the day.
So I think it does shatter this narrative.
Oh well, maybe maybe they did still have certain elements of these nuclear facilities still operable or still somehow standing, but it doesn't matter because they are going to be They have been so catastrophically struck by the sheer volume weight execution of this that it doesn't really matter and
it will take them years to construct this. The other interesting point was Haig seth ran through the reports from other intelligence agencies as well from the un from the Israelis, and the consensus across the board is that they have set back the Iranian nuclear program by years. So I think, really now, the obsession with this line around questioning exactly what was destroyed and how it's all a red herring designed to undermine America.
Well, Pete Hegseth made that point at the beginning, didn't he where he said, the press are so obsessed with the scandals they missed truly historic moments. And then of course he handed over to the Chief of the Joint the Chievement of the Joint Chiefs, who described just how
historic this mission was. We all learned about a new defense agency that many of us had never heard of before, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which apparently studies movements of America's adversaries around the world and spends well, in this instance, fifteen years, as he said, preparing especially for the event of an attack that's necessary. But meanwhile, the media obsessed with red herrings, with leaks that come with agendas and
Feetegseth is pointing out the obvious. If you're going to leak an intelligence report from the Pentagon, you don't do it out of the goodness of your heart, you do it with an agenda. And as you said, Caleb, he accused the media of having anti Trump bias in their DNA, which means they have to hope that the mission is unsuccessful, because if it is successful, they have to congratulate Donald Trump.
That's the last thing they want.
And so since those bombs were dropped, most of the media have spent the entire time undermining, doubting, casting aspersions. That the other thing that's interesting about this and I felt this through the entire press conference, and we're sitting here in Australia, but you almost felt a sense of pride for the US military and for the soldiers involved. And I think that represents a real shift in this administration where they are really promoting the military, promoting.
Pride in the United States.
And I liked when hag Seth, who was criticized during the week for talking about how proud he was of our boys who flew those planes, and then was, well, you know, there are women pilots in the Air Force as well, and he simply said, we don't do those silly gender games anymore.
We don't play those games anymore.
This administration really is straight shooting, promoting the US military and getting rid of all the rubbish that the media have engaged in for so long, to say, hey, we've got an important job to do defending our nation, and we don't expect.
The media to just play along, but we do.
Expect the media to show a sense of responsibility and a sense of impartiality in their reporting.
And that goes to his opening remarks about what Trump managed to achieve at NATO. I mean, what you have seen, and I've written about this in my column and the Advertiser tomorrow. What you have seen this week is a genuine world leader.
And it's a long time.
Since you could say that we've had a genuine world leader, because I know we talk about prime ministers and presidents and premiers and people all the way down to local mayors being leaders, but the reality is that many of them are little.
More than managers. They manage what is in front of them.
In order to be a leader, funnily enough, you have to lead, which means you are getting other people to change their mind. You are changing the way a country operates, You're changing.
Away the world operates.
And that is what Trump has done this week, through the strength of that attack the preciseness of that attack. He has shown the world that he is willing to act if and when he thinks it is appropriate. And that is a message to China and Russia and any other potential adversary as much as it is to Iran. In fact, you know, you could argue that Iran is just the poor bugger that had to wear it in order for Trump to send the message that he's willing
to use his might because it is there. He then goes to NATO and convinces all but one nation to increase their military spending to five percent.
That is leadership, and that is why.
Work like this has been so successful, because Trump, as he Seth said, has done away with the DEI nonsense and said we are in the business of peace through strength.
And achieving things.
That's what leadership is and that's what Trump has been about. And of course you mentioned the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. I mean, how extraordinary the genesis of all of this Over more than fifteen years, sixteen years that these two blokes, two blokes have been working on this project like it is literally two men who lived and breathed four dough that led to this attack on Sunday, Our time.
That is extraordinary. Two men to men.
Makes Trump's comparison with the bomb dropped on Hiroshima a little more realistic.
Right now.
You know that they've been working for fifteen sixteen years getting ready for this. If you saw the movie Oppenheimer, where they work specifically on We're going to end the war, We're going to drop a bomb, makes that comparison not quite so silly. As many people mocked Trump when he said that.
And they weren't just mapping the mapping four dough.
It's through their mapping that they ended up developing these special bombs.
And so it's all this knowledge.
Compounded over fifteen years developing the bombs and all the tech required to destroy the plants.
It's truly incredible.
I felt proud, and I'm not even American, and I just was sitting there thinking, imagine if our leaders in Australia spoke like this about our country. Imagine how great that'd be to have a defense minister who knows what they're talking about.
We can only dream.
Yeah, Well, of course you mentioned the NATO summit. Richard Marles was there on the very edge of the photograph. I'm not imagining that he nor the Albanezi government are going to be so enthusiastic about this amazing historic achievement by the United States military. It really does then leave them out in the cold when the US are celebrating such a historic event, a great result in Iran, and of course now with thirty two NATO nations right behind America who are leading with strengthening.
And one of the other points that we should mention from that press is Higgs Seth sorry was asked multiple times about enriched uranium and whether or not it was removed from fourdoh ahead of the attack. He has said there is nothing to suggest that they didn't hit what they wanted to hit, which is saying he thinks they've destroyed it, but he's looking at the intelligence. But the reality is, even if it was removed, the stuff they need in order to use it has probably been destroyed.
Well, it was an amazing press conference this evening. Thanks for tuning. That's all from US tonight, but stick around. Coming up in just a moment is to read a Pennety show.
Good night,